Public toilets are everywhere. From the banks in hospitals to those at the bus parks. Let's focus on bus parks for today.
Some of these public toilets charge from N20-N50, depending on where it is located. From the door of most of them, you would already perceive the funny smell mixed with that strong odour of Izal or something similar.
Give it to them though, they try to keep the floors clean.
Most times, users of these toilets have to fetch water from a the drum where water is stored within the toilet.
Tissue paper and soap are handed out in bits sometimes by the toilet attendants, that is if they have the items available.
The 'managers' are barely keeping the place usable, nothing fantastic or even hygenic for that matter
As if that is not enough, these public toilets have to deal with touts, thugs, 'area boys'.
We already know that they violently collect levies from the bus drivers and their conductors. One other aspect of them that people do not know is that they fight a lot amongst themselves.
According to a staff at the Oshodi Motor Park,
“There is a section at the back where there is no barbed wire fencing. The area boys jump in through the space in the midnight and by 4:30 am, they jump out again. They destroy the tap, pipes and buckets whenever they fight. There was a time when one of them lost his money and he thought it was stolen by his friends. They started fighting and destroyed the pipes and buckets. You never can tell what they are up to and they also harass our customers who want to park their cars. They will insist that our customers pay them N100 to park their cars. Imagine that a customer will have to pay N100 to urinate for two minutes. I am appealing to the government to do everything possible to keep them away permanently. The police do arrest them, but they come back in a matter of weeks,’’ he said.
“That happens every day. You will have cases like that. You stand your ground at times and most times you let them go with their trouble. It is a dirty job, but who will do it? Many Nigerians travel abroad and do worse things. I am happy where I am today because it allows me to do other things,’’ he said.
However, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Steve Ayorinde, has said that public toilet facilities in the state would soon be replaced with computerised models. Ayorinde , who spoke in a telephone interview with The Punch on Monday, added that the state government would partner with the private sector to deliver world-class public toilets.
“We are aware that a few of the toilets are in a state of disrepair. But we are taking a holistic approach to solving the problem. At the moment, we have signed an understanding with a partner to deliver 100 computerised public toilets all over Lagos. A few other partners will also come on board and we are not going to adopt the old style. We are taking our time to ensure that we have the right people so that we can have public toilets that can compare with those in developed countries. We are also going ahead with our sensitisation programme, targeted especially at people coming into Lagos for the first time on how to use public facilities,’’ he said.
This is an example of a public toilet.
Why do they need computerised public toilets in motor parks? The touts would need a reorientation first and there must be constant electricity to make that happen.
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